


The Four Times Iroh Gave Her Butterflies And The One Time He Didn't

by kiranwrites



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Baby, Children, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28906845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiranwrites/pseuds/kiranwrites
Summary: A 4 + 1 fic, mostly fluff and then turns into angst.
Relationships: iroh / oc, jasmine / iroh, oc x iroh
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	The Four Times Iroh Gave Her Butterflies And The One Time He Didn't

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Jasmine is a collective OC me and a few people from a Discord server made. She was Iroh’s wife, who is dead before the events of the show. She was instrumental in Azula learning to be politically savvy, and also plays into a personal headcanon about Lu Ten.
> 
> Jasmine, to me, also helped get me into developing lore for the Fire Nation, their customs, history, and politics. I’ll write more about her in my fanfic (https://bit.ly/3c0HGn3) when I get to some more emotionally charged moments for both Azula and Zuko, so this isn’t the last of her.
> 
> As always, comments are very much appreciated!

The first time she saw him was outside her father's house, her hair billowing in the wind, tunic wrapped loosely after her shower.

He was dressed in armor, but when he looked up to her it all seemed to fall away and she felt like she was burning from the inside out, all exciting and angles and life.

It was in the way he gestured below that finally got her moving and she rushed out of the balcony and hastily down the stairs, roughly telling her father she was stepping outside for a moment. And upon getting outside she heard his full laughter at something the man next to him was saying, eyes still twinkling as he saw her come and shoo his partner away.

He stepped closer and she was on fire, a snarky response ready at her lips, well aware that she was being watched by her dad, but fully uncaring due to the man stood before her.

"And What may I call this pretty flower?" He asked, and his voice settled somewhere in her toes, pushing her legs deep into the earth, transfixed upon him.

"Jasmine," she breathed.

He lifted her hand and kissed it lightly, and she felt something flutter deep inside her.

– – –

It was a few months later and by this time Iroh and Jasmine had seen each other around the village a few times. She knew he was a strong firebender and a general in the army, liked tea and a good game of Pai Sho, and really enjoyed hearing her talk about the world.

She was sitting deep in the branches of a tree in her father’s garden reading Bending Philosophies and Governing Practices when he'd appeared below with a picnic basket. That was new.

She climbed down, straightened her dress, and raised an eyebrow at him. “I was reading,” she said.

“I know, but I figured you would enjoy this egg tart, straight from Madame Kovo's oven.”

“You know me too well,” she said, grabbing a tart from his basket, and walking ahead.

She could feel him looking her up and down, taking in the view. So he was playing that game. She could sure work with that. Flipping her hair and pointedly looking back at him with bedroom eyes she said, “Well, Iroh. Coming?”

She saw the moment his brain sputtered and relished in the fact that the lovestruck look on his face was all her doing. In that moment she felt the way she imagined those girls she went to school with felt – her stomach fluttering the way a birds wings did before flight.

– – –

They had spent the whole night dancing around each other at the marketplace, him reaching his hand out and her teasing him, moving her hand away after the briefest of brushes, seeing him grow impatient as always.

The locals of Atuki were celebrating tonight, and her father thought it was a low-key enough event that she could go out without being outwardly in danger. She took some precautions of her own too, dressing in shades of green instead of her usual red and orange, and if Iroh's reaction upon seeing her at her door was something to go by, she looked great.

He wasn’t too bad himself, though for some reason he had chosen to dress himself as a... food merchant. She didn’t think about it too hard, though the green complimented complexion, there was a fire in his eyes that she thought would raise suspicion but there were lights all around and she played it up to that.

She dragged him toward some fire dancers near the center of the fair, watching in awe as they juggled fire between themselves. It was warm here, though she didn’t know if it was because she stood near the Dragon of the West or because she was transfixed by the show near her.

Absentmindedly, she wondered what kissing him would feel like. Awkward, she supposed, given her height and his comparatively towering stature. But here in the fair after a night out eating tarts and sweets and winning her a stuffed saber tooth moose lion, she felt confident.

Jasmine took a deep breath in time with the music’s swell, turned to Iroh with a purpose.

He turned, a question in his eyes turned toward her mouth, and she nodded, grabbing him by the lapels and pushing her lips onto his. It was just as awkward as she'd imagined it many times now, but somehow sweeter. Their noses bumped on the way back, her pushing him away and catching his dazed look, electric.

She turned back to the show and felt his eyes on her. It took everything she had to not to turn toward him, not to swing his arm around her shoulders. But he did anyway, and that’s what she thought it felt like to fly.

– – –

A year after their wedding she was back in a tree, though this time not in her father’s garden but in Fire Lord Azulon’s, still a book in hand and a pen, listening intently to the conversations in the War Room.

A strategical error to place it so close to the garden, and a pity too, since this was where she spent most of her time now that Iroh was in line to become Fire Lord. But, as usual, she made the most of the opportunity and learned all the names of the generals and their wives, who was pregnant, who was jealous of whom, who wanted to usurp a higher-up. Useful information, for another time.

She heard Iroh open the gate to the garden and picked up her book again, if only to keep up pretenses. They both knew what she really did up there.

“Still up in a tree?” he asked, standing below the tree with a picnic basket like he did all that time ago. She noted the parallel.

“Egg tart?” she said, climbing down and straightening her dress.

“You know it,” there was something different about him, he seemed almost nervous, though she couldn’t imagine why. They were already married, and there weren’t many more steps, unless...

“You know me too well,” she said, grabbing a tart from his basket, and walking ahead.

He sighed. “I know. Listen, I’ve been meaning to ask, and I know it’s a lot, but –”

She stepped into his space, touched his face lightly.

He breathed in, as though steeling himself for rejection. “I want to have a child.”

While Jasmine had thought about it, she had never given it any serious thought. She knew there would be a rush, but she figured it would be longer before he would ask.

She stepped back and looked at him. “Right now?”

“Well... no. I just wanted to bring it up.” He held her hands in his and lifted them to his mouth. “I love you. A lot. I want a child, yes, but I want us to go at our own pace.”

She raised her eyebrow.

He looked down a moment. “As much as Father would allow us.”

She sighed. “Yeah.”

He was ecstatic. “Yeah?”

She raised her hands to the sky in praise of the spirits, “Let’s have a baby!”

He laughed and drew her into a hug and placed a kiss on her head. This was comfort, and the dancing feeling in her stomach was one she knew she would never get used to.

– – –

Looking in the mirror that morning, Jasmine saw the first of her gray hair. Premature, she knew, but Lu Ten was a handful and court life were starting to take its toll on her.

Her son was no doubt already out in the son with her husband, practicing his forms. She wondered if he was a prodigy, but all she knew was that he loved the war too much. Though she couldn't fault him for that, she was raising a prince of the Fire Nation.

She dressed, having dismissed her servants for the week, knowing that they wanted to go back home to Atuki for the festival that she would enjoy from the balcony for the first time in her life.

She stepped out her bedroom door and saw Iroh standing holding a scroll. She bowed to him and made to move past him to the gardens for the day, but he grasped her elbow.

“Jasmine,” he breathed.

“Husband, dearest,” she replied coldly.

“I think I figured it out,” he sounded excited, she registered.

“Oh?” she tried keeping her voice neutral.

“If we get Ba Sing Se, the war will be ours!” he sounded almost like a small child recalling events at a friend’s playdate.

Her stomach dropped. “Wonderful news, Iroh.”

“I know,” and he softened his voice. “It’s all thanks to your support these past years.”

She smiled, hoping she wouldn't give away her distaste at his excitement. “My pleasure.”

He hugged her, and she tried to melt into it, to reignite the spark that she once felt this close to him. He let her go after a moment, and she walked away, not looking back.


End file.
